Here is a guest post from Winnifred Tse of AAFMAA:
The AAFMAA (American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association) has a long
and distinguished history.
Established on January 13, 1879, by a committee of army officers chaired by
Lieutenant General (later Brigadier General) Roger Jones, Assistant Inspector
General of the Army, the creation stems
from the losses suffered at the Battle of Little Big Horn three years
earlier.
Traditionally, on
the frontier, when a soldier died, the others left would "pass the hat" and
take up a collection used to send to the deceased soldier’s family
back East. After the Battle of Little
Big Horn, there were no surviving soldiers to pass the hat. The army did not want this to
happen again.
At the creation of AAFMAA (then Army Mutual Aid Association), the expressed purpose was “to aid the families of deceased members in a prompt,
simple and substantial manner.” Now,
134 years later, that is still at the core of all the AAFMAA does.
All ranks of Army,
Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are eligible for membership – active duty, Guard/Reserve, retired and cadets/midshipmen at the service academies.
In addition,
honorably discharged veterans in AZ, CT, FL, HI, MD, NC, OK, RI, SC and VA
are eligible for membership and services.
AAFMAA’s signature
Survivor Assistance Services are included with each member’s first life
insurance policy.
Also, the member benefits department provides valuable veterans affairs claims coordination
services as well as maintains physical and digital vault storage for members’
most important and critical documents.
AAFMAA Wealth Management & Trust LLC
provides financial planning, money management, and trust services.
The membership is
over 90,000 strong, with over 100,000 lives insured through the life insurance
programs. Insurance in force exceeds $25 billion and assets are in excess of $1 billion.
More information
about AAFMAA and the services can be found at aafmaa.com
